RESEARCH ARTICLE Further Tests of Belief-Importance Theory K. V. Petrides1*, Adrian Furnham2 1 London Psychometric Laboratory, University College London (UCL), 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, United Kingdom, 2 Research Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom *
[email protected] Abstract Belief-importance (belimp) theory hypothesizes that personality traits confer a propensity to perceive convergences or divergences between the belief that we can attain certain goals and the importance that we place on these goals. Belief and importance are conceptualized as two coordinates, together defining the belimp plane. We tested fundamental aspects of the theory using four different planes based on the life domains of appearance, family, finan- cial security, and friendship as well as a global plane combining these four domains. The cri- teria were from the areas of personality (Big Five and trait emotional intelligence) and learning styles. Two hundred and fifty eight participants were allocated into the four quad- rants of the belimp plane (Hubris, Motivation, Depression, and Apathy) according to their scores on four reliable instruments. Most hypotheses were supported by the data. Results are discussed with reference to the stability of the belimp classifications under different life domains and the relationship of the quadrants with the personality traits that are hypothe- OPEN ACCESS sized to underpin them. Citation: Petrides KV, Furnham A (2015) Further Tests of Belief-Importance Theory. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0121978. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121978 Academic Editor: Alessio Avenanti, University of Bologna, ITALY Received: October 29, 2014 Introduction Accepted: February 9, 2015 Belief-importance theory (abbreviated to ‘belimp’ in order to conserve space and facilitate the Published: April 13, 2015 nomenclature) posits that certain personality traits confer on the individual a propensity to Copyright: © 2015 Petrides, Furnham.